1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to basketball backboards and, in particular, to a lighted backboard with an acrylic rebounding surface that is supported by and adhesively bonded directly to a molded plastic frame.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a great variety in basketball backboard designs and materials available today. Some of the various backboard designs include a rebounding surface that is supported by a rear frame, which may be composed of wood, metal, or plastic. Some designs include rebounding surfaces composed of glass or plastic that are supported by a frame surrounding the periphery of the rebounding surface.
As basketball and basketball apparatuses have become more popular, additional designs have become popular. Among the most popular designs are those that use plastic rebounding surfaces. Plastic rebounding surfaces provide greater flexibility of design, lighter weight, and easier construction; however, they typically must be supported by complex, heavier-duty frames to withstand the ordinary wear-and-tear to which basketball equipment is subjected. In addition, backboards that employ plastic or acrylic rebounding surfaces often suffer cracking and separation from the frame during ordinary use.
Many basketball backboards are produced using a moldable plastic material to construct the frame. Blow molding has become a popular method of producing basketball backboards and related parts of basketball goal assemblies because of its efficiency and flexibility in the molding process. Other processes such as injection, compression and roto-molding may provide similar results.
Molded plastic frames provide certain obvious advantages over steel and aluminum frames. For example, molded plastic frames are cheaper to produce, lighter in weight, and allow for more creative designs. In addition, plastic backboard frames can be molded in configurations that result in substantially fewer parts to assemble. Unfortunately, molded plastic frames are typically less structurally sound than their metal counterparts. Prior art backboards that employ molded plastic frames often suffer from structural problems such as cracking and separation of the rebound surface from the frame.
One existing backboard design solves some of the structural deficiencies of prior art molded plastic backboards by using a two-piece frame encapsulating a rebound surface. The frame is formed by separately moldable front and rear sections such that the rebound surface is supported between the frames, and the peripheral edge of the rebound surface is completely encapsulated. The rear frame member also may include an internal reinforcing structure integrally molded therewith to further enhance the strength and rigidity of the rear frame.
While the two-piece encapsulated backboard indeed produces a structurally sound backboard that prevents cracking of the rebound surface, it is always more desirable to produce a backboard of equal quality and durability while employing fewer parts. To that end, other existing backboard designs employ a one-piece molded plastic frame with a rebound surface mounted thereon. These designs tend still to suffer from cracking and separation of the rebound surface. The disadvantages of these one-piece designs usually result from inferior design of the supporting frame structure and inadequate attachment of the rebound surface to the backboard frame.
Another disadvantage associated with prior art one-piece molded plastic backboards, is that they generally do not allow for as much creativity of design as do multi-piece backboards. One-piece backboards must possess the structural strength of multi-piece backboards in order to function similarly. Therefore, their ornamental features are usually limited to decorating the rebounding and surrounding surfaces, such as with inmolded graphics on the rebounding surface. However, as basketball increases in popularity, there is a need for backboards with features such as lights which allow nighttime play. Multi-piece designs provide more flexibility for designers to employ decorative features within the backboard frame itself to give backboards more interesting three-dimensional qualities. But as stated above, multi-piece designs have their own disadvantages including increased cost and weight, and added complexity in manufacturing and assembly.
Therefore, there is a need for a lightweight, yet durable basketball backboard that exploits the advantages of molded plastic frames, particularly multi-piece molded plastic frames, in a one-piece backboard frame. The one-piece backboard frame would exploit such advantages as lighter weight and ease of manufacturing and assembly, while also providing for advantages heretofore associated only with multi-piece backboards, such as increased structural strength and greater flexibility in design. To accomplish this, a new process is needed to form a better backboard assembly by more strongly and efficiently assembling the frame and rebound surface, while still allowing for enough flexibility of design to add features such as lights.